Tempering 101
I'm a silversmith. By hobby, not trade. By trade, I'm a conflict management specialist - coaching, training, facilitating reconciliation, mediating and just coming alongside people in conflict and out of conflict are what I like to do. And not just conflict as people think of it - disputes, fights and discord - but also the inner conflict that arises up within one's being from adversity and trauma and other things that catch us off guard and unawares. So, what does silversmithing have to do with conflict - or adversity and other things that press in on us, for that matter? A lot actually - if you follow the metaphor. See the picture here? Those are rings that I made out of the raw plate silver that you see underneath them. Raw plate silver isn't very pretty. Nor does it have much of a purpose. As plate, it just sort of sits there. But when I take a saw to it and cut it down or into patterns, then a hammer or a mallet to shape it into place, something